A Touchscreen MacBook Pro Just Invites More Filthy Fingerprints

Commentary: Yes, I’m judgy about how smudgy Apple’s new laptop screen is going to be.

I had to suppress a shudder at the thought of how smudgy the touchscreen display on the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR is going to get. Unlike every other Apple laptop, you can directly tap and swipe on this new MacBook Pro screen like an iPad or iPhone.

I try to rarely even brush the screen of my laptop, and yet it still ends up with its share of oily smudges. To be clear: It’s not like I’m reaching into a bucket of greasy fried chicken when typing away at my MacBook Pro. But even with normal use, skin oils build up on the keyboard. Shutting the laptop brings those oily keys directly into contact with the glass, stamping the display with a ghostly grid of gunk.

Ages ago, I would slip a microfiber cloth between the screen and keyboard whenever I shut my laptop, but I eventually gave that up. Now, I regularly wipe it down with a screen-cleaning spray called Whoosh, recommended to me by an Apple Store employee.

Oleophobic Coating and Cleaning

More from CNET The new MacBook Pro gets the same oleophobic coating, a surface treatment meant to minimize fingerprints, as found on iPad, iPhone and the announced HomeView. We’ll have to see if it’s any more or less successful on the large PROLED XDR display when we test it out.

The least Apple could have done was include its $9 Polishing Cloth for free, but the cloth remains a separate accessory purchase.

Why a Touchscreen Was Inevitable

A touchscreen Apple laptop has been inevitable since the first iPad - heck, even the first iPhone - which has trained a generation that screens are meant to be tapped, swiped and pinched. Apple even tested a laptop touch interface with the Touch Bar on MacBook Pros for several years before finally giving up.

People I love and respect nonetheless send a shiver down my spine when they stab their laptop screen - or worse, touch my screen - to point out something. Am I oversensitive to fingerprints on a screen? Most definitely. But I know I’m not the only one.

A Photographer's View of the Display

As a photographer, I want to see my photos on the best possible screen, and this one is certainly Apple’s premium laptop display. Because it’s OLED, the blacks should be truly black, and colors look extremely vibrant. Apple says its 2,000-nit brightness makes it easy to use in bright light, and it has a wider color gamut that covers both P3 and Adobe RGB color spaces.

But I also want to know that when I’m using software to remove errant dust spots from my images, I’m not clicking the same area four times because the spot is actually a smudge on the glass.

Could I buy the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR and never touch the screen? Probably. But that feels like paying extra for a feature I wouldn’t use, even though the improvements are rolled in. You can’t get the OLED quality without the touchscreen. And making it a touchscreen display invites more skin-to-glass contact.

The question is whether I’d be able to keep my paws off the screen when I just want to zoom in on a map or dismiss a notification. For the time being, a touchscreen Mac isn’t high on my list of features. But as I type this, I am realizing my display is once again in serious need of a good cleaning.